The draw ceremony for the first and second stages of the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup Asian qualifying tournament was held in Kuala Lumpur, the AFC headquarters, which means that the first cycle of the World Cup expansion to the top 48 is about to officially kick off.

The 2026 World Cup Asian qualifying tournament system has been greatly changed

Due to the expansion of the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams, there are 8.5 places in Asia, so the Asian qualifying format of the World Cup has changed dramatically.

According to the agreement between FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, the first and second stages of the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Saudi Arabia Asian Cup qualifiers were jointly conducted, and the FIFA rankings on July 20 became the basis of the group draw.

At present, the AFC has 47 member associations, and the number of teams eligible to participate in the first two stages of this joint qualification is 46.

The Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup consist of four stages.

Phase 1 (2026 World Cup and 2027 Asian Cup joint qualifying) : The 20 teams ranked 27th to 46th in Asia will play a two-leg home-and-away match on October 12 and 17, 2023, with the 10 winning teams advancing to the second phase.

The specific matches after the draw are: Afghanistan v Mongolia, Maldives v Bangladesh, Singapore v Guam, Yemen v Sri Lanka, Myanmar v Macau, Cambodia v Pakistan, Chinese Taipei v Timor-Leste, Indonesia v Brunei, Hong Kong v Bhutan, Nepal v Laos.

Second stage (2026 World Cup and 2027 Asian Cup combined qualifying) :

The 36 teams (the top 26 teams in Asia and the 10 qualifying teams in the first stage) will be divided into 9 groups (each group of 4 teams) from November 16, 2023 to June 11, 2024 for home and away double round-robin matches, the top two groups (a total of 18 teams) advance to the third stage of 2026 World Cup Asian qualifying. It also qualified for the 2027 Asian Cup.

The third stage:

The 18 teams that qualify in the second phase will be divided into three groups (six teams each) to play a home-and-away double round-robin tournament from September 2024 to June 2025, with the top two teams in each group (six in total) qualifying for the World Cup Round of 48.

The fourth stage:

The third and fourth placers (6 teams in total) from the 3 groups in the third stage will be divided into two groups (3 teams in each group) for a single round duel, with the match time to be determined.

The winners of the two groups will advance directly to the last 48 of the World Cup, and the two second-placed teams will determine the winners through a play-off, with the winning team representing Asia in the intercontinental play-off for the 2026 World Cup.

Based on this format, it is possible to calculate the total number of matches for a team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup from the Asian qualifiers:

A total of 16 matches will be played if promoted from the third stage, 18 matches will be played if promoted from the fourth stage, and 19 matches will be played if promoted to the Intercontinental play-offs.

It can be seen that the Asian qualifying period of the World Cup after the reform is longer and the number of matches is more, which tests the overall strength and stability of the team.